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Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"W

BL6 6SL

The symbol shows the location of the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter which serves 2,690,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) mast?

Winter Hill transmitter - Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

_______

Which Freeview channels does the Winter Hill transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35- (585.8MHz)	726m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C29 (538.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C31 (554.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C37 (602.0MHz)	726m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LM	H -20dB	C40 (626.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester,
LL	H -17dB	C24 (498.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	2,000W
	from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool,
LPR	H -20dB	C56 (754.0MHz)	572m	DTG-12	1,000W
	from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire,
GIM	H -20dB	C57 (762.0MHz)	572m	DTG-2	1,000W
	Now 90s, Spotlight TV, Clubland TV, Country Music Entertainment , Classic Hits MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 78 TCC, 80 That's 80s, 86 That's 90s MCR, 88 TV Warehouse+1,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Winter Hill transmitter?

BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.

ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 22km southeast (139°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.

How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1956-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2009	2009-13	2013-18	2013-17	20 Feb 2020
	VHF	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C9	ITV_waves
C12	BBCtv_waves
C24								_local
C29								SDN
C31							com7	com7
C32								BBCA
C34								D3+4
C35								BBCB
C37							com8	com8
C40								LOCAL2
C48			C5_waves	C5_waves
C49_{tv_off}						ArqA	ArqA
C50_{tv_off}						BBCA	BBCA
C54_{tv_off}					-BBCB	-BBCB	-BBCB
C55_{tv_off}		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	ArqB	ArqB	ArqB	com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					_local	_local	_local	LPR
C57_{tv_off}					GIM	GIM	GIM	GIM
C58_{tv_off}					SDN	SDN	SDN
C59_{tv_off}		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C61					ArqA
C62		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA
C65		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{tv_off} Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
_waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	500kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 100kW
com7	(-12.9dB) 25.7kW
com8	(-13.4dB) 22.6kW
Analogue 5	(-16dB) 12.5kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-17dB) 10kW
LL	(-24dB) 2kW
GIM, LM, LPR	(-27dB) 1000W

Local transmitter maps

Winter Hill Freeview Winter Hill DAB Winter Hill AM/FM Winter Hill TV region BBC North West Granada

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968	Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Comments

Wednesday, 19 February 2020

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

6:08 PM

The Code Rate for com8 was reduced to 1/2 a while ago.

Here are the current Bitrates for com7 and com8:

PCRs in each transport stream were used to calculate the bitrate.

Median values tend to eliminate rogue PCR results.

The values can be used to deduce the transmission parameters using a calculator such as:

DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator: DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator - Tools for Digital TV and Mobile DTV

com7:

Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 34 <= dPCR <= 37 ms intervals over 11 seconds for Arqiva C Com78 National (19/02/2020 15:47:35)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
05.985 | 01.852 | 03.471 | BBC NEWS HD
06.237 | 02.318 | 03.592 | Channel 4+1 HD
10.648 | 02.747 | 04.934 | 4seven HD
08.426 | 03.609 | 05.472 | TJC HD
03.727 | 00.644 | 01.238 | Smithsonian Channel
03.841 | 00.553 | 01.334 | Quest Red+1
02.585 | 00.559 | 01.321 | More4+1
02.490 | 00.654 | 01.334 | CBS Reality +1
01.227 | 00.775 | 00.985 | 5USA+1
04.778 | 02.151 | 03.187 | RT HD
05.163 | 01.271 | 02.609 | Pick+1
02.323 | 01.019 | 01.722 | Jewellery Maker
03.471 | 00.569 | 02.362 | Null Packets
04.999 | 02.080 | 03.264 | All Other Streams
36.825 | 36.825 | 36.825 | TS Bitrate

PCR PID, Calculated Bitrate (bps)
0301, 36824872
0401, 36824873
2211, 36824874
2331, 36824874
1101, 36824876
0101, 36824877
0511, 36824878
0731, 36824878
0841, 36824880
2121, 36824880
2401, 36824895
2021, 36824901
0631, 36825177

maximum bitrate = 36825177
minimum bitrate = 36824872
average bitrate = 36824903
median bitrate = 36824878

A match of 36824882 Bits/s is found with the decontis DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator with these parameters:

Bandwidth: 8MHz with ext. ticked
Modulation: 256 QAM
Code Rate: 2/3
Pilot Pattern: PP4
Data Symbols: 59
FEC Blocks: 195

com8:

Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 34 <= dPCR <= 35 ms intervals over 11 seconds for Arqiva D Com78 National (19/02/2020 15:47:04)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
06.551 | 04.038 | 05.174 | QVC HD
06.018 | 02.753 | 05.054 | CBeebies HD
06.090 | 02.810 | 04.718 | QUEST HD
02.667 | 00.554 | 01.435 | 5STAR+1
02.374 | 00.556 | 01.415 | CBS Justice +1
01.463 | 00.687 | 00.949 | Forces TV
01.872 | 00.515 | 00.845 | PBS America +1
03.522 | 01.070 | 01.849 | FreeSports
01.411 | 00.682 | 01.096 | Together TV+1
02.835 | 00.768 | 01.320 | NOW 80s
01.630 | 00.000 | 00.237 | Null Packets
03.249 | 01.501 | 02.884 | All Other Streams
26.975 | 26.975 | 26.975 | TS Bitrate

PCR PID, Calculated Bitrate (bps)
2611, 26974875
0311, 26974877
2111, 26974877
0101, 26974879
0211, 26974880
2221, 26974880
2511, 26974889
2311, 26975003
2801, 26975116
2421, 26975229

maximum bitrate = 26975229
minimum bitrate = 26974875
average bitrate = 26974951
median bitrate = 26974880

A match of 26974881 Bits/s is found with the decontis DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator with these parameters:

Bandwidth: 8MHz with ext. unticked
Modulation: 256 QAM
Code Rate: 1/2
Pilot Pattern: PP4
Data Symbols: 59
FEC Blocks: 191

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js's 841 posts US flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:56 PM

js:

Hi js, > The Code Rate for com8 was reduced to 1/2 a while ago.

It's believed this happened on the 12th Feb. when Sandy Heath and a few other transmitters had a retune, it was spotted on the Freeveiw Detailed Coverage checker for Sandy Heath reception and supposedly upcoming changes on WH on the 20th, and later dates for other TXs, but it seems they all must have changed on the 12th as one might expect because it's an SFN. Checking here on off-air it hadn't changed on the Monday (10th) but had later in the week!

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:01 PM

js:

Oh, forgot to add a lot of the (DUK) database has NOT been correctly updated. Many TXs still showing 2/3 for COM8 in the Detailed Coverage Checker.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

9:50 PM

Chris.SE: Yes, I saw the report on DS. They might have changed simultaneously but com8 is not in the SFN yet. In fact, it has a Cell ID of 2369 which is the same for all the multiplexes that originate from Winter Hill apart from com7 which has Cell ID of 16449.

The Cell ID is shown in this screenshot from CrazyScan2, taken the morning after reading the report. I'm not sure what bitrate CrazyCat shows here but the parameters are correct.

Winter Hill com8 14 February 2020.png - Album on Imgur

CrazyScan / Wiki / Info

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js's 841 posts GB flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:30 PM

js:

Hi technically you are right of course, I could have worded what I said better - instead of "because it's an SFN" it might have been been better to say "because they all will be/or are part of an SFN it's sensible/necessary for them all to change simultaneously"

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

Thursday, 20 February 2020

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

2:24 AM

Chris.SE: Well, com8 is up and running on - 753.833MHz. I wasn't expecting that. The Cell ID is now 16449.

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js's 841 posts AT flag

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:58 AM

All:

For anyone visiting here that has lost and doesn't realise what has happened, there has been a retune event.
The PSB1/BBCA has moved to UHF and the COM8 multiplex to . You need to retune to restore your channels.
If you are having trouble getting the BBC channels in their normal place at LCNs 1,2,9, .......etc in the EPG, this could be because you have an old C/D group that is not receiving C32 very well or at all. Some of these aerials will work ok if you are in a good area. Otherwise you now need a Group T/ aerial to receive all multiplexes from reliably.

For those having problems with the BBC multiplex on C32, you can still find the old programmes/channels at LCN751, 752..... in your EPG until the 22nd April to give you time to get your aerial problem resolved without loss of service. See Problems with Freeview reception? | Help receiving TV and radio and click on work affecting television in the North of England on the 19th and 20th February for more detail about these changes.

If you don't have or , and use your own aerial (not a Communal or Landlord's one) then you can get free - phone on 0808-100-0288.
See What is 700MHz clearance? | Freeview for technical information about these changes.
For further information about these Winter Hill retunes and channels used, see my posts on 12th/13th Jan et seq. on p189 here.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

David Freeman
8:20 PM
Bury

ON instructions on our tv I have tried all day to re-tune the tv, however all the BBC stations have been not available. At 6pm there is a very weak when I do a manual tuning.
When will we have a good signal as we had previously?
Post code BL8 2HD, house number 2

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David Freeman's 1 post GB flag

David's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:26 PM

David Freeman:

I suggest you read the post immediately before yours!

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

Dave LW
9:15 PM
Colne

I happened to have a decent external Group T fitted in Tuesday 18 Feb as part of repair works, and was getting good signals (~80% strength on ch58(COM4) according to my PVR's , similar on other ) immediately after installation, and I had no problems with recordings made on Tuesday or Wednesday, including some from COM4. My location is BB8 7DS (Colne, right on top of a hill).

Today (20 Feb), both before and after retune, signal strength is more like 40% on ch58 and most other channels, though ch32 is more like 65%, and recordings made from ch58/COM4 after the retune are showing some patches of mild breakup (kind of expected at that signal strength).

Have the power outputs been [maybe temporarily] lowered as part of the retune process?

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Dave LW's 1 post GB flag

Dave's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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